Pourquoi Slash aime-t-il Radiohead? C’est vrai ça, on se le demandait tous, non? Bon… Au cas où, hein, Slash c’est un des gars du groupe Velvet Revolver, et cette semaine, il a accordé une interview au magazine NME intitulée justement ‘Pourquoi j’aime Radiohead’, et le moins que l’on puisse dire, c’est que c’est carrément dithyrambique! et ça donne:

“I’m sort of a new fan of Radiohead. I wasn’t hip to them when they first came on the scene, but I discovered them later. So I went out and bought all their fucking records and now love them all. I probably didn’t get turned onto them until 2001- I guess it had to be Kid A that got me first. They have the best guitar sounds, regardless of how much techno sonic stuff they have going on around them. I’ve haven’t heard guitar sounds like that in god knows how long. And Thom Yorke has an amazing voice. He has such depth of character and emotional strain. The drummer’s great, the guitar players are great, their ideas are great- they have a wonderful fucking imagination. Some of the stuff that sounds like straight-form rock’n’roll, they put a twist in it you’d never expect. They are one of those bands who are really prolific. I know they get compared to U2 and Yes, but they really do have a unique thing onto themselves. There was a point in time where they came out with Hail to the Thief’ which was when this band of mine, Velvet Revolver, were first starting- Hail to the Thief is one of the few records that has come out in the last few years that I’ve bought. There is a mood that goes along with listening to those guys and sometimes it can be a little draining, but I remember driving around in my car with that record on and that led to me to their other records. So for a couple of months I listened to nothing but Radiohead every day. I thought their music was so compelling. I wouldn’t try to sound like them. I get influenced by people and I try to pick up whatever positive tiny nuance that might be added into my repertoire, I do it subconsciously. I appreciate bands doing something different to what I do, and leave it at that. So I become more of a fan that someone who is trying to alter his life so he can be like them. Would I work with them? No, no way. I’m too introverted to actually go seek these people out. The closet I came was when I was trying to get to a concert they were playing at the Hollywood Bowl. I’ve never seen them live, only on TV. But the concert on TV was great. I like anything that has sincerity and originality and integrity and some fucking balls. And Radiohead have all those things.”

Koyne rend hommage à l’attitude de RadioheadDans the Independant, petite reflexion de Wayne Coyne, leader de l’excellent groupe, les Flaming Lips:

“The Flaming Lips don’t really go out of our way to be commercial or to get on the bottom rung of mainstream music. People think of us in this realm of progressive rock, the way maybe Radiohead is, and I try and remind people: the difference between us and Radiohead is I believe Radiohead could make a record that was more mainstream. They could get played on the radio and they could be on MTV but they purposely go the other way.”

Radiohead = Kennedy, MSP=Nixon C’est en utilisant cette comparaison que Kike Wire essaye de définir son groupe, les Manic Street Preachers dans une interview accordée au Guardian: (N.D.L.R. : le groupe va sortir un album qui s’appelle ‘The Love of Nixon’)

“To release that as a single obviously gives us a bit of glee. I’m attracted by egotistical, megalomaniac, paranoid people. There’s a sample on the record where Nixon says, ‘I have never been a quitter.’ I feel a bit of empathy with that. It’s the idea of the ugly duckling. Radiohead are Kennedy, Manic Street Preachers are Nixon.”

et un peu plus loin dans l’article, c’est James Dean Bradfield qui reparle de Radiohead, pour dire quelque chose pas forcément faux…

“Radiohead and Blur and Oasis are a group of individuals. Even to Middle England, Thom Yorke is recognisable. But I’ve heard so many times, ‘There’s that bloke from the Manic Street Preachers.’ I never wanted to be anything else but the bloke from the Manic Street Preachers.”